Ruth Speaks Out

This blog is maintained by the Ruth Institute. It provides a place for our Circle of Experts to express themselves. This is where the scholars, experts, students and followers of the Ruth Institute engage in constructive dialogue about the issues surrounding the Sexual Revolution. We discuss public policy, social practices, legal doctrines and much more.

Posted on Tuesday, October 09, 2018

On Sunday, Roman Catholics across the country will unite to fight "the evil one" with a "Rosary Coast to Coast."
Jennifer Roback Morse, founder of the Catholic pro-family Ruth Institute, told PJ
Media that this "Rosary crusade" will bring hope amid the fallout of the priest sexual abuse scandal and to the hidden victims of the sexual
revolution.

"The evil one is slinking around our town causing trouble," Morse told PJ Media. She insisted that, just like the victims of the clerical abuse
scandal, victims of the sexual revolution are "invisible," hidden.

"I think there are millions of invisible victims," she explained. Her book lays out many kinds of victims: spouses who didn't want divorce, children
who never know their parents, and women who delayed childbirth too late.

Morse insisted that the problems with the sexual revolution are scientifically verifiable, but she also said they have a spiritual dimension. She
led the Ruth Institute to join the "Rosary Coast to Coast" in order to spread awareness of the
problems and to encourage Catholics to pray the Rosary to fight the spiritual battle. She wrote more about this decision in an article for the National Catholic Register.

October 7, the date of the event, is also the feast of the Holy Rosary, a feast that dates back to the Battle of Lepanto, a key victory against
Ottoman Turkish forces on October 7, 1571. European Christians were vastly outnumbered, but Pope Pius V led the soldiers and the city of Rome
in praying the Rosary, and the Christians won a huge victory.

Father Richard Heilman, a priest in Madison, Wisc., organized "Rosary Coast to Coast" to fight a spiritual
war. "Casualties often go unseen, but very few are left unwounded. The Enemies encamped against us seek to rob us of our Dignity–the essential
Dignity of the Human Person, being made in the Image and Likeness of God," he wrote.

He pointed to the "secular Left" as the ideological enemy, and pointed to Poland as his inspiration. In 2017, the people of Poland prayed the Rosary in a circle around the borders of their country. More than 1,000 sites have been registered for the event on Sunday, across the United States and in 39 countries. Prayers will begin at 4 p.m. Eastern in the U.S.,
including a large rally on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

Morse and the Ruth Institute have launched a local event in Lake Charles, La. "We told people, 'Buy ten blue t-shirts and get one gold one free.' We're
going to line up like a giant Rosary around the lake," she told PJ Media. "We sold 500 t-shirts in a town of 100,000."

The Ruth Institute founder noted that southern Louisiana is still Cajun country. "Catholicism is a big part of Cajun identity, it's like their food and
their music," she explained. But Catholics must unite to fight the spiritual battle over the family.

The Ruth Institute works to keep families together, explain why children need their parents, and bring healing to the wounds caused by the sexual revolution.
"We got involved in 'Rosary Coast to Coast' because we're on the frontlines of dealing with family breakdown, which is just about the most painful,
brutal thing going on in our culture," Morse told PJ Media.

"The sexual revolution's problem is that we are at war with our bodies," the Catholic leader argued, echoing the claims of her book.
"We're a gendered species — male and female — and sex makes babies. We resent all that. That complex of ideas is the underlying problem
of the sexual revolution. That's what's causing family breakdown."

She also referenced the deep darkness of abortion. "For a woman to think it's a good thing to kill her own baby, that's not natural. There's a kind of
darkness at work that is making us less than human."

Morse did not identify liberals themselves as the direct enemy. "I tend not to go around saying, 'This is a bad person.' I think a lot of the people who
are 'on the other side' have a lot of issues and brokenness themselves," she explained.

"The enemy is the evil one. I believe that the devil is real. The idea that is the enemy is the idea that sex is a game and your body's a toy," Morse told
PJ Media. That idea has taken over a broad swath of American culture — and cultures across the world.

"We're not going to solve this without divine assistance, and anybody who doesn't see that is kidding themselves," she said.

While Lake Charles has a strong Catholic population — about 50 percent — Southern Baptists make up a sizable minority, about 30 percent. "People
here tend to be either Catholic or Baptist," Morse said. "Mary's a tough thing for them. I'm trying to assure them we're not worshiping statues, we're
not worshiping Mary."

"We're asking for her help. Jesus loves his momma and so do we," the Catholic leader said. "He's a nice Jewish boy who loves his momma." The Ruth Institute
has advertised the local event, "Rosary Around the Lake," with billboards explaining why Catholics ask Mary for help.

Morse also suggested that, in the wake of the priest abuse scandal, Catholics should emphasize that the face of Roman Catholicism is not just priests,
cardinals, and the pope. "When people think of the Catholic Church, they picture a line of clergy processing into St. Peter's Square. I'd like people
to picture hundreds of lay people saying the Rosary. This is the Catholic Church, also."

She recalled the historic Cajuns, settling in Louisiana after being expelled from Canada, gathering together and "saying the Rosary with their calloused
hands."

"People here are slightly bemused when I tell them I founded a 'hate group,'" Morse told PJ Media. "It's a badge of honor, practically." Her work to preserve
the family and help the victims of the sexual revolution is the furthest thing from "hate," but such smears seem to come with the territory. This climate
of intolerance is merely one more thing to pray about.